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Super 8

1. SUPER 8

Director: J.J. AbramsStars: Elle Fanning, Joel Courtney, Kyle Chandler, Ron Eldard, Noah Emmerich, Amanda MichalkaRelease Date: June 10Why we’re excited: Movies, at their core, can strongarm a viewer’s imagination and play tug-of-war with it in the best ways imaginable. Back in the late 1970s and early ’80s, Steven Spielberg understood that more than any other filmmaker, tapping into both kids’ and free-thinking adults’ minds with the sci-fi classics Close Encounters Of The Third Kind and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.

Now, J.J. Abrams is looking to recapture that old Spielbergian mix of coming-of-age drama and intense sci-fi with Super 8, fittingly produced by Spielberg himself. Like the pre-release descriptions of all of Abrams’ secretive projects, little is known about Super 8’s plot. All that we know for sure is that the story kicks off with a group of kids witnessing the beginnings of an epidemic (that’s possibly alien-related) while shooting their own homemade zombie movie.

When the first-ever look at Super 8 premiered during this Super Bowl earlier this year, it stuck in our heads long after the Packers claimed their huge trophy. Three months later, Abrams has managed to conceal the movie’s secrets with CIA-like precision, and we couldn’t be happier. In an age of Internet spoilers and incessant on-set paparazzi shots, a movie that can remain mysterious up until release day is pretty magical. Just like those old Spielberg flicks...and hopefully Super 8, too.